Lobbyists

The Ethics Commission on Thursday approved in concept a plan to prohibit city commissioners from being paid to lobby other Los Angeles officials, part of a series of reforms considered in the wake of recent investigations of conflict of interest and other wrongdoing by a Riordan administration appointee. "Its purpose is, fundamentally, the restoration of public trust in government . . .

I'm still shocked in City Council meetings when I see lobbyists send in plays from the sidelines. Like football coaches, they perch behind the blue velvet ropes that separate the players, in this case council members, from the audience. When one of their proposals is in trouble, the lobbyists summon friendly lawmakers over to the ropes and suggest a change in strategy.

A handful of California investment attorneys, concerned about the lack of capital for small companies, is gaining influence as a lobbying voice for small business. The 3-year-old California Capital Access Forum can already tally far-reaching changes in securities law that it helped put into effect this year. It has the ear of such notables as Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt and Jere Glover, head of the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy.

I've been watching a bunch of good people in South Los Angeles try to drive drug dealers off the streets. Last month, the bad guys won a major victory. Not that the drug dealers had anything to do with it. But when word gets to the crooks, they'll probably cheer the news that the Community Coalition for Substance Abuse has lost $700,000 in federal funding, most of its $1.1-million budget. This near fatal blow came just a few days after President Clinton's drug czar, retired Gen. Barry R.

A year after the 1995 White House Conference on Small Business, the nearly 2,000 delegates have spun off into an efficient, nationwide lobbying network for the small-business community. Some are now considered small-business experts and are sought after to testify at congressional hearings. Others meet in closed-door sessions with federal bureaucrats to hash out new regulations. Still others are handed draft copies of federal reports for their comment.

The city is not exactly sending Mr. Smith to Washington, but it has agreed to send the next best thing--a professional lobbyist. Although two of its members were uncomfortable with the notion, the City Council voted 4 to 1 Monday to hire a Washington, D.C.-based firm that will try to secure federal dollars for city projects. "Let's be honest," Councilman Donald L. Bone said. "It's an election year, and the squeaky wheel gets the grease."

When House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) announced the Republicans' Medicare reform policy last year, he spoke at a conference of an organization called the Seniors Coalition. The Seniors Coalition? It's Gingrich's kind of group: a conservative alternative to that much larger and more liberal lobbying powerhouse, the American Assn. of Retired Persons.

A onetime lobbyist for the proposed developer of a landfill in Elsmere Canyon is under investigation by the FBI as part of the independent counsel's probe of former U.S. agriculture secretary Mike Espy, sources close to the inquiry said Wednesday. As recently as last week, FBI agents have requested documents connected with the Elsmere Canyon project from the U.S. Forest Service, Torrance-based waste hauler BKK Corp. and Rep. Howard P.

An innovative effort to ban Saturday night specials across the San Gabriel Valley is being derailed by a new gun lobby tactic: Warning politicians that their cities may face high-cost lawsuits if they ban the sale of the small, cheaply made handguns.

Although three Californians remain in the running for top administration posts, some leading state Democrats fear that the Golden State may be losing its luster in the eyes of the White House as President Clinton rounds out his new Cabinet. With half a dozen spots left to fill before the year's end, UC Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien is a leading candidate for secretary of energy, Los Angeles Rep.